The Kern Valley football teams participated in a scrimmage with North High and Foothill this past Friday as they get ready for the upcoming season. Photo submitted by Stacey Sanders
It’s that time again when, you strap on the gear and battle on the gridiron. The Kern Valley varsity football team, despite being young is taking the proper steps into becoming a successful team.
This year Kern Valley will suit up 28 players as they being the season on Friday at home. Under the guidance of head coach Scott Tedrow, the Broncs return only nine players. This young squad has a tough non-league portion of the schedule, but hopes to use that to vault them into a successful league showing.
The nine returning Broncs include six seniors, a pair of juniors, and one sophomore. Leading the way for Kern Valley are seniors, Luke Brown, Zane Carver, Joey Galvan, Deegan Lee, Bryce Smoot, and Aren Valdez. Aiden Madden and Tavin Watts are the juniors, while Tyler Lewis is the returning sophomore.
Joining the Broncs as seniors, are, Wyatt Rankin and Donovan Valenzuela. The juniors are Jaden Arellanes, Blake Baughman, Tristin Beckham, Jeffrey Clark, Blake Embree, Daniel Hinkey, Guage Johnson, Andrew Miller, Baden Mota, Carson Parks, Mickey Pearman, Jacob Redenius, Ivan Sandoval, and Thomas Valdez. Filling out the squad are sophomores Dustin Caraway, Michael Porter and Drake Posney.
Tedrow enters his 14th year of coaching at Kern Valley and third as the varsity head coach. He has six assistant coaches helping him along the sidelines. Wes Woody, Evan Moore, Corey Mixon, Donald Beaton, Frank Woody, and Brent Moxon make up the rest of the Kern Valley coaching staff.
Tedrow has his sights on molding this team to be successful by coming together and becoming a team. His goal as the coach is to form a team where both the players and coaches are accountable in their success and their failures. He said, “My goal is always to instill a culture of hard work, discipline, and accountability for our coaches and players as we work together to achieve our goals.” These goals that he has set are to claim the HDL title and win a CIF championship.
His initiative to attain these goals are simple. As a team with hard work and a competitive spirit they can be successful in reaching the goals. The bar might be set high, but Tedow commented, “I challenge myself, my coaches, and our players to show-up, work hard, and get a little better every day. If we can do that, we’ll have a great season.”
In the tough non-league, Kern Valley will face many upper echelon teams. They have designed this to improve their play, gain experience, and create that squad of athletes that will come together and do the job to the best of their ability. Talking about the non-league portion of the schedule, Tedrow said, “We’re looking to continue to improve fundamentals, fine-tune our offense, and get ready for league play. We have a tough non-league schedule, but I think if we can come out with a few wins, we’ll be in great shape heading into league play.”
Turning to HDL action, the Broncs will be right in the thick of things in battling for the league championship. Tedrow believes that his team will have to overcome the usual suspects as Bishop, Rosamond, and Boron will the teams that Kern Valley must beat to grab the HDL ring. He said, “Bishop, Rosamond, and Boron will all be tough this year. Should be a great battle for the HDL title. And just like any year the goal for HDL play is the same, bring home the trophy and claim a league title banner. Tedrow said, “Our goal is always to go undefeated in league and win the title.”
Despite the lack of team experience, the varsity Broncs football team has a chance to be successful. They will take the first step at home on Friday when they take on Oakland High School. The first game, and the initial butterflies for players and coaches will kick off at 7 p.m.
